


The Apple Pie Life

by Marvel_Patronus1



Series: How Dean Winchester came to love Castiel, as told by Castiel- proof read by Sam [3]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Apple Pie, Castiel tries to bake, Dean is upset, Hunt Gone Wrong, M/M, Sam meets an old friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-16
Updated: 2013-02-16
Packaged: 2017-11-29 11:22:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/686405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marvel_Patronus1/pseuds/Marvel_Patronus1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean had no idea how Cas did it, how an angel of the lord could turn something so beautiful and flakey and sweet and perfect into whatever the hell was in front of him. </p><p>But he did. </p><p>Cas had officially destroyed pie. </p><p>The world seemed a darker place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Apple Pie Life

**Author's Note:**

> Hello again lovely people. This is a two part instalment today just for the fun of it.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!
> 
> All mistakes are my own (though I am looking for a Beta if anyone is interested it would be great!)

Castiel wanted to make Dean happy.

He had wanted to make Dean happy ever since he had realized that he was irrevocably in love with him.

Castiel was certain that the word 'irrevocably' was perfect for this situation because after finding out that he was in love, he had decided to read any popular love book he could find. In doing so he might have stumbled across a highly inaccurate book about a young girl who was irrevocably in love with a sparkling vampire.

Therefore, the word seemed to fit.

He wouldn't let Dean know that he had read this book though, nor that he was in love with him. Mainly because he had read that the number one rule of being in love is not to let the other persons know you're in love with them.

You have to show it. Actions speak louder than words after all.

So after a long hunt in which nearly everything went wrong and the impala was buried under a ton of rock that Castiel had kindly removed, Dean was not in a good mood. Even from Bobby's kitchen Cas could hear Dean outside, tools clanking against the box as he threw them in, kicked them around and even said a few curse words louder than was probably needed.

In front of him on the table, hidden out of the sight of Bobby and Sam who were in the living room, was a list of things he had written down form various books. The list was mainly devised of a way in which he could make his 'sparkling diamond' happy.

The only thing was that Castiel did not know how to write a song, draw a picture, recite poetry or find the perfect gift. He might be an angel of the lord but that didn't mean he was used to feeling the things he was feeling- Love.

That's what Dean had said it was. Love. Each time Castiel thought the four-letter word his insides twisted into knots and his lips tugged at the edges. There was another loud yell from outside, followed closely by the sound of metal being torn apart.

"The idjit." Bobby muttered from the living room as Castiel quickly slipped the piece of paper back in his trench coat.

"He's just mad." Sam spoke, Castiel stayed in the kitchen, trying not to eaves drop on their conversation.

"Well he better brighten up before he does more damage to that car. Wrecked enough as it was." Sam gave a huffed laugh and Castiel listened as Bobby's footsteps disappeared.

Dean needed to 'brighten up'. Whatever that meant, he wasn't sure. He did know that Dean would know, however. And for some reason, ever since Castiel had realized he was in love with Dean he had been unable to miss an opportunity to be in his company. Somewhere he heard that was also known as 'obsession'. He didn't have time to dwell on the thought, opting instead to pop up behind Dean who was leaning under the hood of the impala.

"Hello Dean." He said in what he hoped was a cheerful tone. The cheerfulness disintegrated as Dean's head snapped up, banging against the hood of the Impala which lead o a string of cuss words and Dean turning around frowning whilst rubbing the back of his head.

"Dammit Cas, don't just sneak up on me like that." Cas frowned, not even five minutes and he had managed to make Dean mad at him. That must have been a new record.

"I apologies, it was not my intention to 'sneak up on you' as you put it." Dean smiled slightly as he used his fingers to quote what he had said. He saw it done on a movie once, it seemed it was a good thing to remember. Dean leaned back against the Impala, his hand moving from his head as he crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at Cas.

"What can I do for you then?"

"Why do you imagine I need you to do something?" Dean shrugged, eyes dragging over Castiel as they did sometimes before resting on his face.

"You're not one to just chat." Castiel frowned at that, was he perhaps to anti-social for Dean's liking? He made a mental note to address that issue later.

"I wanted to inquire about a phrase I heard used on the television."

"What was it?"

"Brighten up" any smile that Dean was wearing seemed to slowly disappear as Castiel's words sunk in.

"Television hey? Was that television called Bobby Singer by any chance?"  _Ten minutes and you've made him mad twice_. Castiel groaned to himself.

So far he wasn't doing to well, at all. This must have been a new record or something. He would be sure to check later.

"No." Castiel replies a little to quickly. Dean rolls his eyes but otherwise says nothing. Opting instead to stare at the ground instead of look at Castiel. Watching him cautiously, Castiel notes the slight bags under Dean's eyes, how tired he must be. They got home later from the hunt the night before and he knows Dean didn't sleep much. When you don't sleep you notice when others aren't.

"It means to cheer up, to make someone happy." Dean tells him slowly and Castiel smiles at him. It wasn't hard to tell that Dean wasn't happy.

After pulling him out from hell, Castiel liked to think he knew Dean well enough to know what he was feeling. After all, he had held Dean's soul in his hands, cradled it as he left hell and brought him back to earth. It had been damaged. Even now he can still recall the scars, bruises, cuts and burns that marred it. It was vulnerable in his hands, desperate for some sort of contact, for something to keep it safe a warm. He had held it like it was his own, hadn't wanted to let go of it. Even as he knitted his body back together, as he made sure each piece of flesh was new, each scar erased, he had held Deans soul close to his own. When he closed his eyes he could still see the dull black light that shone from it, the hope that was there even though it was so damaged and broken.

Dean's soul knew him.

He was sure if he held it again in his angelic form the soul would know him, latch onto him as though it was home.

Therefore, Castiel knew how Dean felt.

Of course it didn't take a rocket genius to figure out that he was upset- after all the curse words flowing out of his mouth like lava were enough to alert anyone to the notion.

But Castiel could see more that that. He could see how tired Dean was. How he had given up on almost everything. It made his own heart drop.

"What makes you happy?" he asked, knowing some of the things but wanting Dean to tell him anyway. The actions speak louder than words notion greatly appealed to him at this time. He would make Dean happy today he guaranteed it.

"I've never really thought about it" Castiel nods.

"I'll leave you to your work then." he said quietly, disappearing back into Bobby's kitchen before Dean could acknowledge his words. Back in Bobby's kitchen, Castiel tried to think about what made Dean happy.

There were different things.

Sam, Impala, Hunting, Women. Those were four things Castiel knew Dean liked.

Sam, Impala, Hunts, Women. The four words rattled around his brain and caused a frown to form on his face.

Castiel had known that Dean liked women. Ever since he had seen him watching one of those internet shows with women that wore no tops, there was also the time that he had taken Castiel to that strip club...Castiel felt, however, that perhaps taking Dean to a club such as that to be made happy by another woman would back fire in his plan to show Dean Winchester he loves him. He could always take the vessel of a woman and make Dean happy that way.

The thought left his mind just as quickly as it entered. Castiel felt now attached to the empty vessel. With Jimmy in heaven the body was his. Well that was what it felt like at least. He knew it was wrong to be so attached to a human vessel, especially when he himself was not fallen or rebelling. Still, he couldn't help but feel close to the body, as if his own had tied itself to Jimmy’s, become one with it. Even if sometimes Jimmy's memories still popped up, Castiel was alone in it and it felt wrong to betray it by taking another- especially when it meant he could not return.

Angels could not take dead bodies.

Deciding that women were not the way to go, Castiel tried to think of what else made Dean happy. 

Sam, Impala, Hunts,  ~~Women.~~

He could always try to restore the Impala for Dean. After all it was a car and if he could put together humans surely he could try and put together a car. The difference was that the ability to heal humans, bring them back to life, recreate them- it did not come from Castiel.

That was a gift that was bestowed upon him by God.

God had placed the instructions in each angel, taught each one how to heal their vessel if it broke, how to help those who needed it.

A car, on the other hand, was not exactly a human. It was piece of machine and though Castiel did not know how they worked he could fix it. He did know that Dean enjoyed fixing the Impala. That the connection Dean had with the car was something sentimental, something that made him want to restore it on his own without the help of Bobby and even at times Sam. Fixing the Impala for him would be robbing Dean of something that calms him down, makes him feel grounded. Castiel did not want to do that.

Sam, I ~~mpala,~~  Hunts,  ~~Women.~~

The idea of going on a hunt again, especially so soon after this one, did not entertain Castiel. Of course it would be easy to find a quick job. All it would take was a look around the town, a search for something suspicious that was going on and needed to be addressed.

Sam and Dean were not exactly talking though, and with the Impala out of service Castiel didn't think that a hunt was the best thing for the brothers to do.

That left Sam.

Sam made Dean happy.

He also made Dean angry and sad and worried and stressed and tired and unable to think of other things.

Castiel also knew that Dean still sort of blamed Sam for the Impala getting ruined, so handing him Sam and saying 'be happy' wasn't exactly going to work.

He could always take Dean through his memories.

Let him revisit times that made him happy whilst with Sam. Like the time they set off the fireworks and almost burned down the forest, or when Sam saved all the pennies he had found lying around for two years to buy Dean an entire pie for his birt-

Pie.

The three-letter word caused Castiel to sit up straight, a small smile playing on his lips. Dean liked pie.

Dean loved pie. Pie made Dean happy and Castiel, well, Castiel could do pie.

Pie was easy.

At least he was pretty sure it was.

After all if some man with bad hygiene who worked in the back of a diner and still lived in his mother’s basement with no education could make one so could the angel of the lord.

It couldn't be that hard...Right?

.....

The first thing Castiel did was get Bobby and Sam out of the house.

It really wasn't that hard to do.

Sam was sitting inside brooding; having no car to fix his mind was constantly replaying the hunt earlier, making him madder by the second.

Although the idea of a hunt wasn't a good one for Dean and Sam, Castiel saw no reason why Bobby and Sam couldn't go on one. Searching around he had mentioned to Sam that there were some suspicious deaths at a local high school just a few miles out of town. They seemed suspicious due to the way all five students had died over the past ten years, not to mention those who were just injured.

Sam had jumped at the opportunity, grabbing his bag and throwing in various supplies from around Bobby's house- all the while muttering about hunts and cars and what a ghost was doing at a high school.

Bobby had been slightly harder to convince. At first he had suggested that Sam take Dean, hoping that the two boys would use the hunt as a way to reunite and get over their 'bitch fit' as he called it. Sam, however, had been quite against the idea and instead said he would go on his own.

It only took a slight reminder from Cas that when angry and upset Sam did not work well that Bobby agreed to go with him, despite how much he hated working jobs in his age. Castiel wasn't purposely kicking them out of the house.

It wasn’t that he disliked having Bobby and Sam around, quite the opposite.

He thoroughly enjoyed their company.

What he did know was that he wasn't good at being subtle, even now, knowing he couldn't tell Dean his feelings, he found himself sometimes being maybe too obvious and have to disappear; leave the brothers alone to their own devices.

Having to explain to Bobby and Sam why he was making a pie for Dean instead of going out and buying one was just not a conversation he was willing to have. 

…….

Dean steps into Bobby’s house tired and battered.

The first thing he wants to do is have a beer.

Then a long hot shower before retiring to bed so he can wake up early and finish fixing his baby.

This was the plan, that is, until the smell of something burning pierced him as soon as he opened the front door. Overwhelmed with the smell, Dean hurried into the kitchen where Cas stood opening the oven and then standing up.

“Cas what the hell is going on?” he asked. Cas turned to him with a delighted smile on his face. Blue eyes gleaming.

“Dean! I made you a pie.” Dean looked at the charred mess on the stovetop.

“A pie?” he repeats. Cas just smiles wider, Dean notes that it’s probably the first time he’s ever seen Cas smile and it’s nice.

Really nice.

“Sit.” Cas demands of him. Dean isn’t really sure he wants to, especially when Cas conjures up a plate and fork in front of him. But the strong voice was not that of Cas, it was of Castiel- Angel of the Lord. He knew better than to mess with that.

“I didn’t know you baked…” he starts lamely and Cas shakes his head, bringing over a metal cake tin and placing it on the table in front of him. Dean knows for a fact that that amount of carbon would definitely give someone cancer.

“I’m don’t.” Slowly Cas buts a large piece of the pie and then slips it onto Dean’s plate. Dean stares down at it and just knows that it’s not going to be good. The inside is dry and the apples have been chopped messily. There doesn’t seem to be any butter or sugar and not to mention the fact that the crust is charred black and crumbling by the minute.

“So uh…you going to have any then?” he looks up to Cas who’s watching him closely, rigid and firm.

“Angels do not require sustenance Dean. Besides I made it for you to enjoy.” Dean very much doubts that he’ll be enjoying this. With a small sigh he scoops some up on his fork, thinking that pie can’t be _that_ bad.

After all it is pie.

Dean had no idea how Cas did it, how an angel of the lord could turn something so beautiful and flakey and sweet and perfect into whatever the hell was in front of him.

But he did.

Cas had officially destroyed pie.

The world seemed a darker place.

As he tried to chew through the mouthful of burnt crust and whatever the hell was in the middle, he could feel Cas watching him. Staring at him in that creepy way that he had almost become used to.

“How is it?” Castiel asked him nervously. Dean managed a smile.

“Great Cas.” He lied, but when Cas beamed at him he thought he could let it go- just this once. 


	2. We'll Hunt This Time Tomorrow

Sam knelt down at the bottom of the staircase, the EMF staying silent as he ran it over the floor.

So far, he figured the case was a bit of a dead end.

He was yet to hear back from Bobby who had gone to speak to the ghost’s parents.

From what they could gather from the principal, the spirit in question was 17-year-old Jamie Sullivan. She had fallen down the stairs and cracked her head open dying instantly, whilst running from the cafeteria where her boyfriend publically dumped her.

Since her death ten years ago there had been five more, and numerous injuries all during the week leading up to it.

There was one day left for them to figure it out, 24 hours otherwise thet had to wait another year.

And Sam knew for a fact that a lot could happen in a year.

That wasn't the issue though, the issues was the teenagers that insisted on walking up and down the stair case, running around it, breaking into the school at night to play on it, even though it was barricaded off with strict warning signs.

If adults were already hard to deal with when it came to the supernatural, teenagers made them look like saints.

Placing the EMF in his pocket Sam ran a hand through his hair. Really Cas had fucked him and Bobby over on this case, it didn't seem to be as straight forward as they hoped seeing as there was no trace of EMF, goo or markings that could infer the ghost was haunting the staircase.

He couldn't help but wonder why the angel had offered them the case; well more like forced them to do it. After all, Cas was generally fine with company and it made no sense for him to want to be alone at Bobby's. If he wanted to be alone he just had to flutter away. Of course, he wasn't really alone with Dean there-

"Sam Winchester?"  Standing and trying to turn around all at once, mixed with his tall frame, had Sam very ungracefully tripping over his feet and stumbling slightly as he met a familiar pair of eyes. Blinking owlishly a small smile settled over his face.

"Sarah?" Sarah nodded, a smile dancing on the edge of her mouth as she stood at the top of the stairs.

"It's been a long time." Sam tries to think exactly how long. Three years? Maybe four...at least four...was it five? 

"Yeah it has. What exactly are you doing out here anyway?" Sarah gave a small shrug, hoping down a few stairs, coming closer with each step.

He could tell she hadn't changed much.

She still was stunning, young, her hair was shorter and maybe a bit darker but aside from that there was nothing to note that so many years had passed since they saw one another.

"I'm a guest speaker for the senior art class. They're studying Van Gough. I'm board of talking about brush strokes." Sam let out a small laugh and Sarah takes a few more steps until she's on the floor with him, close enough that he can smell her perfume.  "I think the more troubling question is why you're here." 

"I'm on a hunt, there's been five deaths over ten years all linked to a seventeen year old girl who died just after her boyfriend dumped her."

"Seventeen year old?" Sarah asks, stepping forward just a little bit more. Sam nods and she smiles. "Well good thing we ran into one another."

"Oh? Why's that?"

"Because I'm board shitless and assuming you have no idea about the emotional fragility of a seventeen year old girl in high school." Sam smiles again, wider this time.

…..

As it turned out, Sarah was more than a little help.

She was like an angel sent from God, well as close to one as she could be seeing as Sam actually knew an angel and Sarah did lack some of the 'mojo' that Cas possessed.

Sam and Bobby where sitting in the coffee house, Bobby had visited the parents only to be told that their daughter was cremated and they had nothing left of hers, deciding a clean break was the best way to deal with their grief.

That did exclude the baby photos however.

But no umbilical cord or hair curl or tooth.

Just photos and scattered ashes.

When Sam had suggested contacting those who went to school with her it turned out that all save three people who didn't even know her had left. Apparently nobody wanted to spend the rest of their life in a small town in the middle of nowhere.

At first Sam had assumed the deaths were all connected to the staircase. Each victim had fallen and cracked their head, bleeding out and brain dead.

However, the latest death earlier that week had been in the hallway outside the art rooms.  

According to her friends she hadn't even tripped, it was as if she had just stepped of a cliff and then her body went smashing to the floor where she cracked her head open.

The same death as the other victim, the difference being that they had all fallen down stairs. 

"It just doesn't make sense." Sam says, looking up from his coffee to Bobby who nods in agreement. "A ghost is usually tied to their place of death but now she's all of a sudden attacking in the art hallways. There's got to be something we're missing."

"I agree with you there." Bobby mutters, pulling out a flask and pouring some of its contents into his coffee. Sam smiled at the action.

"I've got it!" Sam looked up as Sarah sat down next to him, her eyes wide with excitement as she looked over the two men, both sitting there looking defeated.

"You've got it?" Bobby asked and she nodded happily.

"Look at this." She handed Bobby her phone, Bobby looked at the phone for a moment before handing it to Sam. The photo was open to a painted picture of a beach. All of it was beautiful except for a large red smudge right across the middle of the painting. It looked almost like-

"Is that blood?" Sarah met his gaze; smile bright as she did so.

"Not just any blood." She informed them and Sam let out a laugh.

"You mean to tell me that's Jamie's blood." 

"Yes. According to her teacher Jamie was one for abstract art. This was her last piece and she did it to show the stain humanity had on the earth." 

"And this was hanging up in the staircase?"

"Yes until this week, they keep the area decorated and clean for when administrators visit, it's apparently very hushed that there have been so many deaths at a small town school. They don't like to tarnish the reputation." 

"And where is it now?"

"They took it down to put in the new art hall that opens in three days. It's currently sitting in the art room supply closet."

"Does the closet just happen to be near where the latest victim fell?" Bobby asks. Sam and Sarah both turn to him, seemingly startled to realize he was still part of this conversation. Sarah smiles even wider.

"Right in front of it actually. And that's not even the best part." she tells them, a glint in her eye.

"Oh what is then?" Sarah turns to smirk at Sam, pulling out a set of keys and placing them on the table in front of Bobby.

"I swiped these from one of the art professors before I came." Bobby grins at her.

"We'll make a hunter out of you yet." Sam doesn't mind the idea too much at all.

…….

So far everything was going to shits. 

Bobby was currently knocked out, Sam was dangling upside by the leg and Sarah was crawling around on the ground- battered and bruised- looking for the lighter and salt Sam had dropped earlier. 

“Listen to me Jamie, I am not you’re boyfriend. I am not Marcus.”

“LIAR!” the spirit shrieked, the walls around them echoing. Sam noticed Sarah moving form the corner of his eye and tried to keep the focus on him.

He wasn’t sure he’d forgive himself she got hurt because he let her help out. Besides, with Bobby already out Sarah was his only hope.

“Jamie. You have to listen. You’re dead. It’s time to move on.” That eared him a slam into the wall and Jamie right up in his face, her eyes crazed as she looked at him and enclosed her hand around his throat. He gasped. His feet twitching as he tried to move form her grip.

“Hey bitch, stop being such a drama queen.” Sarah spoke, her voice hoarse, before she dropped Sam’s lighter onto the painting, Jamie screeched as she alit in flames, Sarah and Sam both covering their ears. The fire burned bright for a moment before in a cloud of Ash Jamie disappeared and left both Sarah and Sam panting.

“Are you alright?” Sam asked her, crawling over slightly to where she was clutching her ribs next to the burning painting. 

“You’re definitely buying me a drink tonight.” She muttered, leaning back onto the floor. Sam laughed- something that soon turned into a coughing fit from his squeezed throat- before moving to check on Bobby. 

“I’ll buy you two drinks.” He promised. 


End file.
